Today top South African Indie act Shortstraw released their third studio album to date, “Youthless”. The album had been made available for pre-order in December 2014 on iTunes and anticipation ran high for it’s release throughout the festive season. It comes as no surprise that  the album made it’s debut at the number 1 spot on the SA iTunes chart this morning.

To quote the band: “The main inspiration behind ‘Youthless’ was actually just doing a record that we wanted to do. We wanted to just take every idea that we’ve had since the last album and just put it down. It’s a bit schizophrenic like that, but we think it’s a good schizophrenia! In terms of music inspiration, it’s pretty diverse. There’s a bit of the Australian scene that we’ve been exposed to over the past year and a bit, which you’ll hear in ‘Heaps Keen’ – largely influenced by Australian band, Dune Rats. There’s High School, which was inspired by the White Stripes. Good Winter, inspired by Bon Iver. Then a bunch of others that range from Vampire Weekend to We Were Promised Jetpacks to Taking Back Sunday.”

I’ve been listening to the album for the last hour and I have to admit that I am impressed. It really is a lot more diverse than their second offering (“Good Morning Sunshine”). 2014 was a big year for Shortstraw and I’m predicting that this album will take a while to grow on their fan base, but once it hits their veins, the songs off the album are going to go down pretty damn well at their live shows this year.

My favorite songs off the album are definitely “Tidy Up”, “OMG”, “Heaps Keen” and “Oxygen Supply”. Have a listen to the full album below to make up your own mind:

Does this get a thumbs up or a thumbs down? Leave a comment and let me know.

Watch this space for regular updates in the Music category on Running Wolf’s Rant.